Boston-area to do list

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PICK OF THE DAY

A musical feast

When Barbara Cook and John Pizzarelli (above) get together, you get a delicious meal of jazz and popular songs from a Broadway soprano and jazz guitarist, vocalist, and bandleader. The menu will include songs from Cook’s new album, “Loverman.” 8 p.m. $30 and up. Symphony Hall, 301 Massachusetts Ave., Boston. 617-482-6661. www.celebrityseries.org

SATURDAY

Loving and living The two ballets at “In the Mind’s Eye” by José Mateo Ballet Theatre
will probably be a sentimental journey for anyone who has been in a relationship or lived in the city. “Streams” is about tension and distrust; “Fearless Symmetries” deals with the push and pull of urban living. 8 p.m. (through April 21). $40. Sanctuary Theatre, 400 Harvard St., Harvard Sq., Cambridge. 617-354-7467. www.ballettheatre.org

Good night and good luck How do you top four Grammys for best jazz vocal performance? Stay tuned because Dianne Reeves is working on a new album to be released this fall (and produced by Terri Lyne Carrington). Reeves appeared in and won one of her Grammys for the Oscar-nominated “Good Night, and Good Luck.” 8 p.m. $30-$48. Berklee Performance Center, 136 Massachusetts Ave., Boston. 617-876-4275. www.worldmusic.org

Five will get you ten Let’s switch gears from jazz to bluegrass and give a banjo pluck to Blue Highway, the Grammy-nominated group of five who have played together since 1994 and released 10 albums. Expect a night of mandolin, fiddle, Dobro, guitar, and vocals presented by the Boston Bluegrass Union. 7:30 p.m. $29. The Scottish Rite Masonic Museum and Library, 33 Marrett Road, Lexington. 617-782-2251. www.bbu.org

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A box of chocolates The whole is more than equal to the sum of its parts, which is Southern black music of the ’20s and ’30s, string band, jug band, fife and drum, and early jazz. Carolina Chocolate Drops appeared in Denzel Washington’s “The Great Debaters” and joined Garrison Keiler on “Prairie Home Companion.” 7 p.m. $25, $45. House of Blues Boston, 15 Lansdowne St., Boston. 617-876-4275. www.worldmusic.org

Playing it forward Arnold Schoenberg thought of himself as a pupil of Mozart, but his only teacher was Alexander Zemlinsky, who taught him composition technique. The student paid it forward by teaching more than 1,000 young musicians about structural accuracy and technical composition tools. The Chameleon Arts Ensemble program, “to answer and resound,” with guest soprano Mary Mackenzie, includes Mozart’s Quintet in E-flat major for piano and winds, K. 452. 8 p.m. $23-$43, $5 student and senior discount. First Church in Boston, 66 Marlborough St., Boston (April 7 at 4 p.m. at Goethe-Institut, 170 Beacon St., Boston). 617-427-8200. www.chameleonarts.org

SUNDAY

Mad about “Mad Men”
“Mad Men” Season 6 starts Sunday at 9 p.m. with a two-hour premiere. Sip your Mad Manhattan, Draper’s Old Fashion, and Gibson’s Revenge at the “Mad Men” Season Premiere Party, where you can swoon over Don and maybe win a prize for the “best ‘Mad Men’-esque attire.” April 7 from 8-11 p.m. (Sundays during the “Mad Men” season). $95 (food/beverage minimum up to four), $60 (up to two), $30 at the bar. Reservations at rsvp@charleshotel.com. Noir Bar at the Charles Hotel, 1 Bennett St., Cambridge. 617-661-8010. www.noir-bar.com